ects may include headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea. call your doctor right away if you have persistent diarrhea. other serious stomach conditions may exist. don't take nexium if you take clopidogrel. let your doctor do his job. and you do yours. ask if nexium is right for you. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. >> gretchen: lots of -- two-hour show christmas eve and again on christmas day. don't miss it 'cause we got a lot of great performances. >> brian: for example? >> gretchen: billy ray cyrus, paula deen and you can help the sandy victim audience. >> steve: plus ashanti. >> brian: if you have to run from the tv, run to the radio everybody. we'll figure it out in time. fox news alert now. the president promised action. the white house announcing vice president joe biden will head an administrationwide effort to come up with legislation in the wake of the newt down

massacre. what form that takes is not clear. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom.". >> hi, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. the president said he would to everything in his power to bring about change after a gunman massacred 26 people including 20 young first-graders at a connecticut elementary school. we're told he will announce the effort today. it will happen a couple hours from now. bill: steve centanni from the white house. what do we expect there, steve? >> reporter: well, bill, we expect the president and vice president joe biden come into the briefing room in a couple hours and begin process gathering information from inside their administration to formulate new policy, any kind of policy. any idea that could prevent this kind of mass violence, these kind of school shootings to happen in the future. this cops as newt town, connecticut, deals with the

mass shooting. the yesterday administration officials met with a father of a teenager killed in the 1999 columbine shooting in colorado. monday the president met with members of his cabinet to gather ideas what might be done in the areas of mental health, school security, and gun control. most likely to push to renew the ban on assault weapons. press secretary jay carney talked about the challenge ahead of them. let's listen. >> it is clear as a nation we haven't done enough to address the scourge of gun violence in this country. it's a complex problem that requires more than one solution. it calls not only for reexam ening our gun laws and how well we enforce them but also for engaging mental health professionals, law enforcement officials educators, parents, communities to find those solutions. >> reporter: now the president will name vice president joe biden as his point man on this issue. he will gather input from the departments of the federal government most

concerned with this issue. that will involve secretary of education arne duncan, attorney general eric holder and health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius and homeland security chief, homeland security chief janet napolitano. by the way the president and vice president will appear in the briefing room just inside here, a briefing room named for james brady who of course was the press secretary to president ronald reagan and who was injured in that assassination attempt on president reagan back in 1981. back to you. bill: steve, we'll await more details on that and headlines when we get them. steve centanni on the north lawn of the white us who. martha. martha: back to newtown, where sandy hook elementary's principal, dawn hochsprung, a hero in that shooting and victoria soto another hero that shielded her children from the shooter. their funerals will be held today. and 6-year-old charlotte bacon.

7-year-old daniel barden and. 6-year-old caroline previdi. as they go through this impossibly difficult day. bill: on and on they go. national rifle association breaking its silence on the massacre. the pro-gun rights group has been silent since the tragedy of last friday. in a statement it said quote. the nra is made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters, and we were shocked, sad, heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in newtown. the nra is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again. nra saying it will hold a news conference on friday, one week to the day after the school shootings. martha: and the gun industry itself is facing an extreme backlash as a result of all of this and it is feeling it in the bottom lines. shares of major gun makers have dropped in the wake of

the sandy hook shootings and the owner of the company that makes one of the weapons used in that tragedy says that they have decided to get out of the gun business. interesting developments here that reverberate all the way to wall street. stuart varney is the anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. stuart, how is tall this playing out in these companies? >> martha, there is a long list of backlash developments. start with this. cheaper than dirt.com, one of the largest internet gun sellers just announced it is suspending all sales. as you noted, the company that makes the bushmaster rifle which was used in the attack, that company will be sold off. we have a california public teachers pension fund may be getting out, selling all of its gun stock holdings. smith & wesson's stock, a leading gun manufacturer, the stock was down 10% in one day. the cabela's the retail outlet that sells a lot of guns, that stock down 6%.

dick's sporting goods, also a big gun seller, has suspended some sales. there is a long list of backlash developments because that event on friday turned public opinion, some action is coming. we don't know what but some action is very likely. the gun industry is in full retreat because of that. martha: obviously investors and analysts in these companies look down the road to see what they think sales will be like 12 months from now. we know that there's been an immediate pop in gun sales in a lot of places as a result of this because people feel that this legislation is coming down the road, right? >> yes. but, do you want your investment firm to be associated with this kind of investment? the california teachers are saying no, we don't want that association. cerberus capital which owned the bushmaster company, says, no, we don't want that association. so they are getting out. it's not just looking down the road at the bottom line in the future. it's a question of do you

want to be associated with this particular industry at this particular time. and the answer, right now, from many companies is no, we don't want the association. martha: very interesting. we have seen in the past sometimes a social conscious kind of element that has weighed in to some of these investments. we think about tobacco stocks and environmental stocks. we're seeing a little bit of that kind of reverberation as a result of tragedy in connecticut. stuart, thank you very much. see you later. bill: got a fox news alert now on a scathing report released on the terror attack in libya. an independent panel saying that the state department suffered from systemic failures in its response to the threat in benghazi. and it says, insufficient security was present on the ground. the report also looks into the military response to the attack which killed our ambassador and three other americans. defense secretary leon panetta now saying it was clearly a terrorist attack despite early reports blaming it on a protest that got out of hand.

>> as always with these kinds of situations there is a mix here but clearly with regards to one of the facilities involved, a direct attack on that facility. i think that there's no question that extremists were involved in those attacks and i think that, you know, we were able to try to respond as best we could at the time. bill: chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge on the story from the beginning. what does the report conclude, catherine? >> reporter: thai, bill, good morning. it is a scathing report. there are 29 recommendations, five of which are classified. all of which have been accepted by the secretary of state hillary clinton. this report concludes that the benghazi terrorist attack on 9/11 was a significant setback, a significant defeat for the united states because it killed four americans including our ambassador and it shuttered our diplomatic presence in benghazi along with a-sizeable cia operation at the annex. during the summer of 2012

the report states that security was consistently deteriorating on the ground in benghazi and it cites at least 20 specific security related events. it also says the u.s. embassy in tripoli led by ambassador chris stevens should have taken a more active or stronger role to advocate for security at the consulate. it also indicates that it was the ambassador's decision to travel to eastern libya, to benghazi on september 11th and that he was aware of the anniversary. the report states, his status as leading u.s. government advocate on libya policy and his expertise on benghazi in particular caused washington to give unusual deference to his judgment. while the report concludes that there were systemic failures at senior levels of the state department, significantly it does not make any formal recommendations for discipline airy action, bill. bill: what else should we know that's in there, catherine? >> reporter: well the missing piece really, and this is the critical policy piece, is why it was that

the obama administration specifically, the secretary of state, advocated for this light footprint on the ground in benghazi when the intelligence seemed to suggest otherwise? secretary clinton will not be testifying this week citing doctors orders she remain at home as she recovers from this concussion. instead we'll hear from two of her deputies. >> when you hear the testimony of deputy secretary burns and deputy secretary nines remind they are standing in for her, so the testimony they give on thursday will very much reflect her view and how we should two forward from this report and how we should learn its lesson. >> reporter: two main takeaways here that security was deteriorating on the ground in libya and it was in that context that the obama administration still advocated for this light footprint and relied on the libyan militia as well as security contractor, both of

which the report found did not provide any meaningful defense and secondly, it also concludes that al qaeda is not dead. in fact al qaeda has metastasized and found a new home in north africa, specifically this lawless region in eastern libya where we find benghazi, bill. bill: thank you, catherine. catherine herridge on the libyan report reaction on the hill. we still have hearings that will take place this week. it won't be hillary clinton but we're told, a, she was willing to testify, but given her health condition at the moment she has postponed that, possibly until january of the new year. when that happens, that will be critical because you heard what ambassador bolton said yesterday. she wants all the stuff to get out there so she can react appropriately? is that the strategy? we'll see from the secretary of state. martha: we'll see if she testifies at all. that is one big question out there and we won't know until that actually happens. more on that coming up a little later in the show. we'll talk about that with our panel a few minutes. we're just getting started on this morning wednesday.

an out of control tractor-trailer, oh, hits the pavement. what happened after that is worth sticking around for. we're going to show you the video when we come back. bill: also reports of a top defense official investigated for leaking information to top hollywood producers behind the bin laden movie called "zero dark thiry". what the pentagon is saying about that story. martha: serious questions about the mental health of the accused newtown gunman, reports are no signs he was on prescription drugs, none of them were found at the house that police investigated. according to the reports, many people are wondering why his mother would allow him access to guns. >> it was not locked. that woman had a mentally unstable person in her life and she chose to bring those weapons into her home and unsecure them and she subjected every single person around her to that. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego.

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through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪ martha: 13 days, that is all the time washington has to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. there could be dire consequences for the economy if they are not able to reach some kind of deal on taxes and spending. both sides say they are looking for balance in this whole agreement they have yet to find. so the fitch ratings agency has now warned it may strip the united states of its aaa credit rating if washington is unable to strike a deal soon on this. meanwhile time is running out for that to be reached.

>> in my view the american people know that republicans and conservatives in particular are for spending cuts and tax cuts. they know democrats are for increased spending and increased taxes. so at the end of the day whatever happens, whether it is expiration of push tax cuts or whatever, they're going to sort this out and know who is behind the increase in taxes and who is behind the cuts in spending. martha: all right. will they sort it out is the big question? standard & poor's as you may remember downgraded the u.s. government rating last year for the first time ever. will we see more of those kind of downgrades? markets will have a big problem with that. bill: you're right. the tragedy in newtown thrusting the issue of mental illness into the spotlight. exact details about adam lanza's mental state are just beginning to emerge. how do we deal with this as a nation? congressman tim murphy, chairman of the mental health caucus and clinical child psychologist. good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: what do we need to

know? what do we need to understand? >> we need to understand as a nation this is illness issue and which can't push it aside and that it is other than that. after each one of these tragedies, after every suicide and mass shooting underlying issue vast majority of these things it is a mental illness issue. congress talks about it and people talk about it and we leave it alone. we can't do that anymore. we need to deeply understand each one of these cases, do more research, understand the links between violence and mental illness. understand most mental illness does not lead to violence but let's talk about the core issues and do the things we need to do. bill: there is suggestion from the white house it will push for tougher legislation. is that the answer? >> well, they're looking for tougher legislation to deal with guns. it is much like if you go to the interest and doctor says you need this treatment. no, i don't want to do that. i want to do this. the common link between the people was not in their hands but what was in hair hearts and what was in their minds. people with wide range of diagnosis, schizophrenia,

bipolar, other illnesses taking place there who had a propensity toward violence, upset with violent games, rehearsed violent actions in households where well intended good meaning parents found themselves someone overwhelming, even when parents some cases didn't know such as in the virginia tech shooting let's address mental health issues. bill: make sense of this. according to reports, we walk with caution here because we really don't know, according to reports there is no evidence he was being treated with medication for mental illness. i mean knowing the experience you have what would that tell you? >> well, couple of things on that. defend we don't know whether or not he was being treated. over 70% of the time when people are taking a psychiatric medication it is prescribed by a nonpsychiatrist. that is not appropriate. if you have someone with a diagnoseable illness you get them treatment in the vast majority of cases. there is great things that medication can do in

conjunction with psychotherapy. the other aspect of parents with angry children, angry young adults find themselves in situations where they're overwhelmed. they are scared to death and have nowhere to turn. sometimes offered if child commit as crime put them in juvenile detention facility or put them in adult prison of the those are not appropriate to treat mental illness. we closed mental hospitals and treatment alternatives and that is barrier for families. bill: put a fine point on this. mental illness is treatable, right? >> yes. bill: the majority of those who suffer from mental illness they don't show signs of violence, do they? >> no, they don't. very small percentage. particularly those with drug and alcohol abuse are actually ones may show more violence. i was talking yesterday with the national institutes of mental health. we need more research in understanding this. we could probably identify more but part of this too you start to hear people see signs of this through social media, through friends and

family. they need to also speak up and make sure those parents are getting encouragement they need to get help. you still have the colleges and institutions which don't even tell parents when someone is at risk to themselves or the people. we have to make sure we remove or deal with those laws where schools are not afraid to communicate with parents as well. bill: if indeed he was suffering from asperger's does that explain anything? >> no, asperger's is not generally associated with violent behavior. it may have to do with other links of very isolated person who does not have friends to reach out to. bill: yeah. tim murphy, thank you for your time. republican from pennsylvania. appreciate your expertise. >> thank you. bill: martha. martha: with long-awaited report on the libya terror attacks now out there are a lot of questions that are being raised about whether president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton deserve some of the blame for what happened there. we'll have a fair and balanced debate coming up on that. bill: look out below!. heads up for a freight train. >> did you see this?

bill: oh this scene caught on video. an out of control truck carrying a herd of cows. wait for it. martha: oh. bill: that is a lot of cow, kid. flipping on its side. martha: holy cow. bill: holy cow. the driver backs out. you can see at least most of the cows getting on their feet. they walked away. not clear where this was shot but the video is viral. martha: whole new meaning to cow tipping. bill: you're exactly right. then they to the up and said moo. martha: don't worry the cows are fine and got up and walked away from the accident. we'll take their word for

it. bill: now the file it may not be as good. martha: all right, thousands of army privates flooding atlanta's hartsfield airport today. this is tradition as they break from basic training to head home for christmas at the same time. the uso is there to make sure they kick off the holidays just right. john roberts is there at the event of the he is live for us in atlanta. hi, john. >> reporter: this volunteerism and service to the country. people in hartsfield-jackson airport are used to seeing a lot of troops move but not like today. brigade sized. 80 busloads are moving here to today to take 17 days of block leave before coming back to finish up basic tribing for deployment. they will start tomorrow a group from fort jackson will do the same thing. these are the last chance these troops have to go home and visit with family at

christmas holidays before they get orders for deployment. people we met said they have no idea where they're going. other privates like kyle cleaver says he already has his orders. he is going to the danger zone. >> i received orders i will be leaving for deployment training in march. >> where are you going? >> afghanistan. >> reporter: how do you feel about this, your last holiday before you ship off to afghanistan? >> pretty good. excited. >> reporter: how does the family feel about it? >> they're stoked. >> reporter: how do you feel this is last time home to see your family before you're deployed to a war in afghanistan? >> i'm kind of sad but proud of my country what i'm doing sir. >> reporter: how does the family feel about it? >> they're very proud of me. very proud. >> reporter: there are obviously a lot of anxiety. a lot of them have never been away from home let alone going to a war zone, one fellow we met said regardless where he is deployed he was born ready. he was. private jacob ready.

martha. martha: i'm proud of those young men as well. i'm sure their families are just over the moon so proud of them and so happy to have them home for a little while this christmas. what about reaction from everybody else there at the airport, john? >> reporter: you know it is really interesting to see because people here every time the troops walk through they applaud them. give them standing ovations anytime there is announcement at gate troops are on board and the plane. we were on one of the planes this morning. they applaud. there is work done here day in, day out by uso. they staff the uso center 24 hours a day. they were out there in force, greeting troops and letting them know they're well come, volunteers like shelly, she says she is here because it makes her feel good. >> they look so young and faces are so sweet. they appreciate little things like a candy cane not having sugar for three months. just their appreciation of little things that we do. >> reporter: one. people we met that had the

most heart-felt story, charlie tucker, a vietnam veteran. he was a flyer during the 1960s. he is manning the military centerter on concourse b. he said the way soldiers were treated when he came back from vietnam left him so frustrated he wants to spend every day of his life letting servicemembers know how appreciated they are. martha: i'm sure that the servicemembers truly appreciate the work he and all the other volunteers are doing out there. we wish him well. what a great thing for everybody during this christmas season. john, thank you so much. bill: he said his family was stoked. >> i love that. they're stoked. bill: breaking news this morning what might be the end of government motors. gm is looking to get out from underneath the treasury department but why taxpayers may still be getting the short end of the stick. payne in the house on that. martha: new questions this morning why state secretary of state hillary clinton's name missing from the pages of benghazi report this as

the administration continues to defend their actions. >> i think there is no question that extremists were involved in those attacks. and i think that, you know, we were able to try to respond as best we could at the time [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

bill: here you go. fox news alert. uncle sam getting closer to getting out of the auto business. general motors takes that gladly, announcing plans to buy back 200 million shares of the stock from the u.s. government which bailed it out four years ago. the feds planning to sell the remaining stake in gm. news may not get all the money back for taxpayers. charles payne, fox business network on this. gm wanted out of this deal for a while now. is it a good deal for taxpayers? >> listen, right now assume the stock goes at 27.50 which is what the offer is this morning. taxpayers will come out losing $7 billion. so, you know, from that math

obviously not a good deal. now the president would argue, it helped get him reelected, there was this other sort of ancillary benefit of saving a million jobs. that is always going to be up for debate but this certainly was a losing, at least financially losing deal for the taxpayer. bill: so we lose 7 billion? >> right. bill: any way to get that back? >> no, i don't think so. you know what? listen the treasury will sell the rest of their stock over the course of next 12 to 15 months and makes a big move, foes up to 50 bucks wheel start to whittle away. but that is unlikely. bill: the stock would have to double. >> it would have to double. it is huge. wall street like the company to operate on its own although the administration doesn't have say over what kind of cars they make i don't think they would put so much capacity into the vault and thinks like that. having said that bill, there are other issues at general motors. they have the biggest inventory glut they have had since 2009. the silverado is losing out

big-time. the malibu is in bad shape. i'm concerned about them losing market share even though wall street loves this particular deal, the stock is up big, you have to be concerned. bill: what is it up by the way? >> it is up at least two bucks right now. in fact it is over the $27.50 asking price. bill: i gotcha. charles, thank you, man. on gm. martha: all right. this news just crossing the wires moments ago. we can tell you that fox is now confirming that judge robert bork has died at age 84 of heart complications. we are told that he passed away early this morning in virginia. of course many people are starting to weigh in on their thoughts on judge bork who was of course nominated for the supreme court by ronald reagan and that nomination was not confirmed. it was a very contentious procedure back in the mid '80s. we want to talk about that. we'll also get to our planned topic of benghazi as well with our panel as they join us now.

alan colmes is with me. he is the host of the alan colmes radio show. tucker carlson editor of "the daily caller" and a fox news contributor. gentlemen, well come. good to see you both this morning. tucker, let's start with you. your thoughts on robert bork? >> i don't think i ever met anybody who's public perception was farther fromy. if you remember back 25 years when this nomination dominated the news the hyperbole, really slander thrown at judge bork at the time painting him totally retrograde monster, meeting him, talking to him, gave you the opposite experience. a thoroughly decent man, a smart man, man of principle. never was there a man, rarely a man in public life treated more unfairly i think, painted more falsely than judge bork. it was sad. bill:. martha: alan, he was originalist, which was his way of viewing the constitution. >> yeah. martha: as you look back on that contentious proceeding what do you make away from it and reflect all these years later? >> i had a chance to interview judge bork a few times in my radio career.

certainly i was not his side politically. i remember ted kennedy saying at time there was no place on the court for judge bork because his views seemed outside the mainstream. in fact in one of his books he had a chapter called, the case for censorship which i thought was really not part of where we are in terms of first amendment in terms of mainstream america. it is sad his name became a verb rather than a noun. and so that is kind of a sad note but, i'm glad i had the chance to at least with speak with him interview him a couple times. important to understand where he stood. martha: absolutely. he will be remembered by so many throughout the course of today. judge robert bork dead at the age of 84. leave as loaning and prestigious legacy maured in some way but that failed nomination for the supreme court. he went on to do many great things and reflect on his feelings about the law in the united states and we'll talk about him throughout the course of the afternoon. so thank you both for your thoughts on him this

morning. i want to ask you about benghazi. the report is now out. it does not lay specific blame at the feet of anyone in the administration. it says a lot went wrong and as a result of those actions we no longer have a diplomatic presence in an area that is extremely important to us. tucker what's your takeaway from it? >> it doesn't tell us much. when everybody is responsible for something nobody is responsible for what happened, not one person as you just said is named as responsible. this is why the pentagon is more efficient than the state department because when people make mistakes they are punished. clearly mistakes led to the deaths of four americans and to date the only person who has been punished so far as i know is the coptic christian from egypt who made this famous youtube video. he is still in jail. but nobody, for reasons that are unclear, and yet no one at the state department up to and including the secretary of state has been held accountable by name. it is pretty distressing. >> conservatives wouldn't be happy unless barack obama or

hillary clinton were named. you got even people saying like hillary clinton is faking a concussion so she doesn't have to testify which is insulting and absurd. and what they found out in this report was that where the ambassador lived, it was considered more of a villa than a diplomatic place and for that reason it didn't have the security. we also found out that the security wasn't funded. jason chaffetz republican from utah, said on cable news show it was a priority to fund security there. may be systemic failure and maybe not an individual to blame which would have made some people happy. martha: alan, everybody agrees with you, you have to accept hillary clinton's condition with the concussion on face of it and fact sheep is not available this week to testify. however what we do know all the way leading up to that issue, that health issue she has not wanted to testify. so you know completely remove that from the discussion and you can say that she refused to go on any sunday shows to talk about this. she, you know, there is with

a lot of discussion whether or not she would testify to it at all. but we remember, this is what her immediate reaction when she was talking about it here's what she did say. >> let me state very clearly and i hope it is obvious, that the united states government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. we absolutely reject its content and message. america's commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of other nation. martha: why have we seen, tucker, she has not wanted to talk about this since then? >> well, this is the one, i think glaring fact of this report, none of this was relevant. there was no protest in front of the consulate in benghazi. the president as you know went to the u.n. shortly after this happened. deif announced quote people who would slander the prophet of islam. turned out it was all a red

herring the question remains, it hangs in the air, how in the face of no evidence at all did the white house and state department conclude that this protest, which never happened, was responsible for the attack on the u.s. ambassador? how did they reach that conclusion? it is still not clear. >> the conclusion what was said they said what they knew at the time. hillary clinton didn't appear on sunday morning shows on september 16th because she had other things to do. susan rice said what the cia told her at the time. martha: cia had already said they, you know, felt 24 hours later that this wasn't because. movie. i don't necessarily want to rehash all that. catherine herridge raised a point maybe the most significant point in all of this, what we have now is no presence, diplomatic presence in this area where al qaeda, according to this report, is in fact growing in strength. so that's one problem. that you have. and then, you know you also have, just sort of issue whether or not, why we had a light footprint in this area? who in the administration wanted us to a light

footprint on the ground in this area in libya where they knew this was a growing situation, alan? >> we just invaded libya. there was not a central government. we had to really depend upon militias basically in order for protection but the notion somehow the deaths of those four tragic deaths could have been prevented in some way, given what we knew at the time is absurd and the attempt to try to blame somebody for those deaths is i think is outrage. there is no gauz gauze-gate. it has been transparent. i don't see where there is cover-up. i don't know what is covered up here. martha: thanks. thanks for your thoughts on judge bork. see you later, guys. bill: that was about the time in 1987 you really started to see these hotly-contested hearings on capitol hill. that was ollie north about that same time. you sat and watched that stuff and absolutely captivated what was happening in those committees. a new effort to crack a cold case. why the detective wants to exhume the bodies of two

notorious killers made famous in truman capote's novel, in cold blood. what is happening there? martha: claims by the pentagon a top defense official leaked to producers of the hunt for bin laden movie, "zero dark thirty.". >> the whole world will want in on this. we will never find him.

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and are nearly invisible they'll change your life. eclipse from siemens: pure, natural sound you're going to love the moment you put them on and for many years to come. call... for a special $200 rebate. that number again... and discover siemens eclipse hearing aids today. bill: there is new fallout about the movie for the hunt for osama bin laden. get ready pour more on this. there is report claiming that a senior defense department official mentioned as a possible candidate for cia director leaked restricted information to the film-makers. now two defense sources coming to his defense telling fox news undersecretary of defense for intelligence michael vickers did not leak restricted information. he has chosen to the speak

to the producers as part of his quote, official duties. general jack keane, retired four-star general, former vice chief of staff of the army and fox military analyst. sir, good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: how do you see this? >> i'm not sure this is a big story in the sense that from what i understand we're releasing a special operator's name, a planner to the film-makers, probably to give them some background information and i also understand that no meeting took place. and, i don't believe there was a release of classified information, at least that's what we are being told. if that's the case, the fact that the justice department is looking at it, you know, we shouldn't make too much out of that. bill: what do you think about the whole official duties thing, meeting with hollywood producers? >> well, listen, we have a long history of working with hollywood to make movies. i mean that's a fact. i mean, we, the united states military has provided

advisors to producers and directors for years in doing that. and that has gone on through countless administrations. i mean, the only thing that has concerned me about making films about the bin laden raid is revealing any of the tactics techniques and procedures to our enemy because we're constantly doing these operation literally every night in afghanistan. bill: is michael vickers a good man? do you know him well if at all? >> oh, yeah, i know mike, as do others and he was a cia operative, a special forces officer and policy maker in the pentagon. he provided years of valuable service to our country. i can not imagine him intentionally doing anything here that would bring harm to anyone. bill: we'll continue to follow this out of the pentagon and the department of justice but on your point on the hunt for bin laden, senator john mccain went and saw the movie monday night and came at very strongly against it.

the movie portrays finding of bin laden's courier directly tied to those that were waterboarded. mccain says that is simply not true. what is the truth there. >> i'm not sure. i do believe secretary panetta did give some indication part of the information, not all of the information, but a portion of the information that did lead to an analyst to bin laden, that information did come as a result of these techniques, waterboarding and others like that. that is according to secretary panetta and obviously we're going to take him at his word. there was other information also that contributed to it but we've got to give a lot of credit to these analysts. they were on this target for years. many of them singularly working this, you know, six, seven days a week. bill: certainly. >> and finally got to him. they deserve enormous amount of credit. bill: indeed they do. jack keane, thank you, sir.

merry christmas to you. >> merry christmas to you too. bill: thank you. martha: ferocious weather is pounding much of the country right now. it is so powerful that it did this. mud started to cascade down a mountain. took a train off the tracks there. those are not toy trains. that is a problem. bill: choo-choo. cold case with infamous pedigree involving two killers in truman capote's acclaimed book, "in cold blood". the dna link police are hoping to find some six decades later. >> agents of the kansas bureau of investigation executed a search warrant that was obtained locally in leavenworth county to exhume the bodies of richard hickock and perry smith. they were suspects in the walker homicide in sarasota, florida. [ male announcer ] this december, remember -- you can stay in and like something... or you can get out there and actually like something.

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bill: frightening moments on video as a massive mud slide derails a freight train. check the out here. everett, washington. that mud slide off a 100 foothill. that was strong enough to take out seven cars. they were carrying chemicals used in cleaning supplies and fertilizer. hazmat teams came in but was nor to the public health or the environment. ouch. martha: how about this? a cold case gets hot again. it involves two killers who were made infamous in truman capote's "in cold blood". phil keating joins us live on the story from sarasota, florida. phil what pushed this back into the limelight again this case? >> reporter: absolutely. modern dna science unavailable in 1965 when those notorious killers were executed and buried.

possibly this could all solve another quadruple murder that happened here 53 years ago today. >> oh, i can't describe it. it was horrible looking. >> reporter: don mccloud can't forget the horrific day in 1959 when he waked in on cliff walker, christine and their two children all shot dead in their florida home. it remains sarasota county's longest unsolved major crime. 52 years later detective tim mcgrath thinks are the same killers of the clutter family in kansas a month earlier. perry smith and dick hickock. >> hickock and smith were driving a stolen 1956 chevrolet belleair and walker family was shopping for a 1956 model and basically the same model. >> reporter: before hickock and smith were arrested for casas killings several

witnesses spotted them in sarasota the day of and the day the walkers died. >> they testified hickock had a scratched face. >> reporter: whoever raped christine walker left semen at the scene. now that smith and hickock have been exhumed a kansas medical examiner will see if either's dna matches the walker scene it what could be unwritten epilogue to capote's famous book. in a predna science type of evidence, cliff walk ear's distinctly handled pocketknife was missing from the walker house and turns out when smith and hickock were arrested for the kansas murders in las vegas, one of them had on a nearly identical pocketknife in their pocket. martha: wow, that is fascinating story, phil. great work by the detective on the scene there. thanks. very interesting. phil keating. sarasota. wow!. bill: there is new fallout from the newtown school shooting as you can imagine only days after president obama went to that town and

said this. >> in the coming weeks i will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens from law enforcement to mental health professionals, to parents and educators in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. bill: we are about to hear how he plans to use his office to change things.

. martha: breaking news in just moments ago, judge robert bork has died this morning at age 84 from heart complications. as you remember of course he was nominated by ronald reagan back in 1984, faced a contentious senate hearing that ended in a no vote for judge bork. he is remembered today by those who admired his judicial outlook, and we will be talking about him in the coming hour with somebody who knew him well. more on that moments away.

and now to this fox news alert as well, to a foxnews.com exclusive on a possible motive for school gunman adam lanza and why he may have snapped on that fateful friday morning. a source tells foxnews.com that lanza's mother had planned to commit him for mental health treatment, and that adam was furious about it. brand-new hour starts now of "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. we are trying to work through this and figure out what the truth is behind this. it's -lt also been reported that adam was jealous of the students at sandy hook. three funerals today. victoria soto who laid down her life to save what she called her kids. martha: what more are we hearing about the whole issue of a possible motive. >> reporter: martha, police won't directly confirm this

story on foxnews.com. they won't talk specifically about any evidence related to this investigation. foxnews.com reports as you mention that police are looking at a possible motive here that adam lanza found out that his mother was planning to commit him to a psychiatric facility. that according to the article made him really, really angry. lanza also apparently upset by how much time his mother spent volunteering at sandy hook elementary school with the kindergarteners there and she loved the kids at the school more than she loved him. all of this comes from a 25-year-old u.s. marine who lives in sandy hook, has lived here his whole life. he says lanza found out his mother was planning to send him away and that set him off. they confirmed to foxnews.com that this is being looked at as a possible motive. he shot his mother, nancy four times with a rifle in the head as she slept in her bed on friday morning in a home that they shared, then he took four of her other guns and went to sandy hook elementary where he

systematically shot 26 others, including 20 first graders, and these are kids who nancy reportedly spent time with volunteering at the school when they were kindergarteners during the past year. martha: we learned that she had volunteered there, as you say and clearly what we do know is that adam lanza snapped on that morning. we may never know exactly what set him off, because so many of the people who have answers to those questions, sadly are no longer with us. but, rick, when you speak of these "little children," and we see the excruciating photos every day of their funeral services, we know that several of them will be buried today as well. >> reporter: as well as a couple of people being credited as heros who died in last friday's shooting, among them vehicle tee soto a 27-year-old teacher at the school her funeral services have begun at this hour at the

lordship community church in stratford, connecticut. the funeral services are packed full. they actually put chairs outside. and mourners have been ae arriving there throughout the morning. we spoke with one of them who says that she continue bring herself to go inside. >> i wanted to go in but i can't do it. i'll just be a wreck. >> why? >> it's too close. it's just so neve nerve-racking that it could be anywhere and anybody. it's just a shame. >> thank you. >> reporter: this afternoon in woodbury, connecticut there will be calling hours for dawn lafferty hochsprung the principal of sandy hook who according to police lunged at adam lanza east was shooting in the school to try to stop him. her funeral and burial will be a private affair. there will be three funerals for the children today.

tkapbd yell barden, seven. charlotte bacon, six, and caroline previti, six will have funeral services today. the surviving students from sandy hook will begin the classes at their new school on january 2nd. also tonight the first sporting event in newtown as this community tries to get back on its feet and resume some since of normalcy, the girl's basketball team at newtown high school actually has a game scheduled for tonight and there was a crush of media requests as you might imagine to go and cover authenticate. the officials decided not to allow anyone in, no media is being allowed in except for the local press that normally covers high school basketball games. espn and other news outlets that wanted to get credentials and go in and bring their cameras will not be allowed in. just local press for the basketball game in town tonight,

martha. >> you can't blame them for wanting to get things somewhat back to normal. i think it's good for the kids and families. we think about those heroes who saved the lives of so many other children according to the stories of what we know happened in the school, and of course those three children and their families, our hearts and thoughts are with them today. rick, thank you so much. we'll see you later. >> reporter: absolutely. bill: so hard to see those little caskets too, day after day. meanwhile fears of another newtown-style school shooting allegedly caused a 6/th grade a 6th grader to bring a gun to school. it was found in his backpack. he took it out threatening his classmates aeu corresponded -l according to teachers. he said his parents gave him the gun for protection after the sandy hook massacre. the parents are are furious that nothing took place with regard to notifying them. >> the student was apprehended

within 30 to 45 seconds and immediately brought down to the office, and the police were on site within five to ten minutes. bill: police are investigating the boy's parents too. in the meantime he's in a juvenile hall and could face criminal charges. and another student arrested in kentucky after allegedly making threats against his high school online. police say the 15-year-old posted threatening messages about jeffersonville high school, although they do not think he has violent intentions. police say they are not taking any chances though and the freshman has and charged with two felonies. martha: let's take you to this now, because it's an update on a story we have been following here in "america's newsroom" over the past several weeks. an 11-year-old cancer patient who was taken from an arizona hospital by her mother, in the middle of her treatment. she has been found in mexico. emily bracamontes disappeared if a phoenix hospital in november. we had the video of her mother walking her out of that hospital. her parents took her to mexico

saying they were unhappy with her daughter's healthcare. she is now receiving treatment for her leukemia at a mexican hospital and says she tphaoels better. >> i feel very sick tha she feels better. >> i was very sick and they weren't helping me that much. here they are helping me a lot and i feel better. martha: we wish her well. it's too early to determine whether the mother will face charges for sneak being the girl out of the hospital. bill: a major showdown on our nation's capitol on a plan to avoid billions of dollars of tax hikes and spending cuts by the 1st of january. at one point it looked looked like both sides were close to a deal wut white hous but the white house has rejected john boehner's plan b. some republicans are saying they are trying to compromise but the president is do the doing his part. >> as you know the speaker is still ready to talk to the

president. i think he said this morning that the president has just not come far enough, in terms of spending reductions, and that's what we really -- what the problem is and we need to make some progress on it. bill: republicans are hot on that spending issue. we are learning the president has threatened a veto on the speaker's so-called plan b. where are we now? shannon bream is on the hill. what is the latest from there? what are you picking up? >> reporter: well, bill house g.o.p. plead tkers are planning tplead tkers areleaders are planning to move ahead with a vote tomorrow. essentially what they are going to do is gut the bill and vote on two amendments to the bill. one they are calling the pelosi plan which would kill tax hikes for those makes lens $250,000 a year. that is the primary piece and vote on plan b which would be an amendment that would basically stop any tax hikes on those making a million dollars or less. republicans for now say they

feel confident they will have the votes to get the measure paesd. they say it's only part of the problem. here is congressman john kline. >> we need to address that spending problem. the president has been unwilling to come forward with any meaningful spending cuts, any entitlement reforms. if you don't reform the entitlements you can never really get at the debt deficit problem. >> reporter: so, again, if the house g.o.p. does succeed in passing that measure tomorrow one of those two amendments they'll vote on essentially trying to get to the plan b it doesn't address the spending issues that. will come later. bill: we'll hear from democrats who aren't happy about the spending cuts, that is the second page in this thing. what about the threat of a veto from the white house. >> reporter: we got a couple of steps to get there. here is what harry reid senate majority leader says about whether the house measure would even get past his body. >> speaker boehner's proposal is not balanced, will not protect the middle class, because it can't pass the senate. and it doesn't do anything.

>> reporter: all right. so even if it did get past the senate you heard today we had this breaking news just moments ago the white house sent out a statement of basically saying even if it did get through the hurdles the president is vowing to veto the legislation. he says it is not balanced. that in mind, we know that the lines of communication are still open, here is what white house press secretary jay carney says about that. >> lines of communication remain open, the president continues to hope that a compromise can be reached, as i said at the top, the parameters of a deal are clear. when you look at the offers, proposals and the counter proposals, a path to an agreement is clear. any hopes that the republicans will join him on that path. >> reporter: even if the g.o.p. moves ahead with the vote tomorrow it looks like it will be meaningless blocked in the senate. we know for sure at the white house. no word today if there are any meetings on the schedule.

bill: times running. shannon bream on the hill. martha: time is running and the snow is coming, bill. blizzard warnings in six states right now. a major snowstorm is making its way from the rockies and the midwest. take a look at the snowfall in south dakota. it could make travel in some parts of the country as we head into the christmas week very tricky. who better to ask than our meteorologist janice dean in the fox news weather center. good morning. >> reporter: the good news is we're going to get some snow. the bad news is blizzard conditions and it's going to be really hard to travel over the next 24 to 36 hours across the plane states. this storm system just getting its act together. we could see 12 to 18 inches of snow, but with that wind gusts 30, 40, even 50 miles per hour. we have blizzard warnings from colorado through nebraska and kansas all the way up through iowa and wisconsin, heavy no, winds gusting anywhere from 50 miles-plus and blowing snow that is going to make travel, if

not somewhat impossible, next to impossible across awful thes all of these areas. snow accumulation 12 to 18 inches across the midwest and the interior northeast. as we get into the next 24 to 36 hours because of the blowing snow we'll see the blizzard conditions are going to be very dangerous. the good news is a white christmas for a lot of these folks. back to you. martha: not for us it looks like 4. >> reporter: no along the coast it's just rain. martha: we'll hope for a little christmas spirit that may change that. i know what you have in your models and everything. we'll hope for cold air. bill: police make an arrest in a disturbing terror plot. what authorities say they were planning. we'll tell but that. martha: a story we have brought you here on ph*erbg' america raops newsroom. room. the parents of john hammer will be with us this morning. they are pleading with mechanics

tan authoritiemexican authorities to release their son from prison. >> examine this case. he should be released immediately. this was an administrative mistake. he is not a gun runner and you know it. please release him. martha: that's his mother. and she and many others now are asking the white house to step in and help in this situation. john and olivia hammer join us live. stpho: a hollywood-style prison escape from 17 floors high. [ male announcer ] red lobster's crabfest ends soon.

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martha: we are back, breaking news this morning. we have learned of the death of judge robert bork, he wasle was 84 years old. died in his home state of virginia from complications with his heart. that video is from 1984 when president ronald reagan nominated bork to the supreme court. it turned into a huge controversy and discussion over freedom, whether or not there was a right to privacy in the constitution, a lot of issues that surfaced during that whole back and forth. he was denied that seat on the supreme court, and we are joined now by joan as gold pwergt editor at large for the national review and a fox news contributor. jonah, good morning. good to have you here. we would love to hear your thoughts and judge bork and perhaps something in retrospect

how he may have been misunderstood if you believe he was. >> i can't think of somebody who was more vilified unfairly in american public life in the last 30 years. robert bork was by all accounts up until 19897 one of the most significant jurists and legal thinkers in america. he had a huge impact on antitrust law and all sorts of things. even joe biden now the vice president said when he was the head of the judiciary committee in 1987, look if they put up robert bork, what am i supposed to do? we've got to confirm this guy. he's just too qualified. and then the left wing interest groups got into it, ted kennedy got into it denouncing him him as a racist, as an ant antisemite, his first wife was jewish. so much of the clash and burn of the last quarter century can be traced back to exactly that

moment when the left decided that robert bork had to be destroyed because he was too smart and qualified for the job of being a supreme court justice. martha: it's very interesting the point that you make that maybe we can trace some of the vitriol that we see, and some of the reasons, perhaps, that so many qualified people want nothing to do with this process. >> yeah, look, even "the washington post" at the time, which was probably a more liberal editorial board then than it is now said that robert bors had been essentially lynched and that it was an outrageous assault on his personal character. and we should say he was also a wonderful man. he was funny. he was so smart. there was no pretense to him, he's one of the only guys that would give you an honest, direct answer to incredibly complicated questions in short understandable sentences, he was a preul kwrapb brilliant man. martha: thank you for your tribute to him and we all remember judge robert bork today. we want to ask about the

commission, we know the president will announce it about 11:45 from the white house today and that vice president joe biden will be in khrarpblg of it and it's basically a commission to try to figure out what what the government can do, if anything, to prevent another newtown. >> yeah, look, i think if you were a strong supporters of gun control laws and banning assault weapons and making real progress on the issue of gun control, i'm not really that person, but if you were one of those people you would be incredibly disheartened by this news, because when was the last time a president of the united states appointed a vice president to head up a commission as a way to actually get something done. this is an old washington technique to basically take an issue off of the president's plate and try to placate your base, or sound like you're doing something, and i think it's particularly unfortunate, because this tragedy is so painful and so awful, and to

have joe biden a man who let's say is not a stranger to demagoguery and bombast to take it over is fraught with peril and it could become a much you wilmuch uglier thing than it should be. maybe he'll be above board and bipartisan. martha: i'm sure you problem below hope you're wrong and something can come of it. >> i do. martha: clearly with all of this tragedy there has to be something that can change, something that can sort of provoke a situation where it would be less likely to happen in the future. and one of the things that keeps coming up, aside from the gun situation, is the fact that we no longer have adequate mental institutions, that mental institutions became so taboo in this country, and in many cases for very good reason, because the care that was given at some of these was so reprehensible, do you think that that will be part of any equation for a plan

for the future? >> i certainly hope so. i think you're absolute absolutely right. i i grew up on the upper west side of manhattan in the 1970s and i worked through the repercussions of the deinstitution in a liization nor the mentally ill. it was a disaster for the mentally ill. that doesn't mean i would defend some of those horrible institutions we had back then, there is room for fixing some of this. and there is a bipartisan consensus everyone agrees we could do better work. martha: thank you so much. we'll talk to you soon. jonah goldberg. bill: there are four more funerals today, including one for the teacher, victoria soto. moments ago this was the scene in newtown, connecticut. ♪ [sound of bagpipes ]

♪

bill: if you take picks and share ep them online pay attention. instagram set off a firestorm when they said they would use or

possibly sell your photos. they have a hundred million users. what are they saying now, liz? >> this is unbelievable, good morning, a huge revolt in less than 24 hours after insuranc instagram said they are changing their privacy policy. let me show you the clause that freaked people out. a hundred million users, many by the way children who post themselves and friends. here is the clause that got everybody upset. to help us deliver interesting content and promotions you agree this a business or -ts entity may pay us to display your user name, likeness photos, and/or actions you take in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions without compensation to you. and by the way can't sue, no last action lawsuits and if you don't like it don't use the service. that's pretty clear.

to your question what are they saying now? suddenly the co-founder is saying, we listened. they put this up on their blog, we listen and we hear you. it was never our intent to let your photos be bought by any kind of advertiser. bill, you've covered enough trials and lawsuits to know that the word intent is very, very dies see, the road to hell is paved with good intentions many would say and it's not clear what they intend to do. your pictures could end up in a casino advertisement, tobacco junk food. bill: facebook bought instagram. >> reporter: correct. bill: how bad could that be for them. >> reporter: facebook stock is not getting hurt today, it's up just a bit. i will tell you this. in the future you get competitors out there and they are going to jump on this quickly and say, well we won't sell your pictures to any advertisers. bill: but if instagrams stumbles who wins out of that. >> reporter: flicker is owned by

yahoo, they are being very clear, oh, don't worry we'd never sell your stuff. twitter is ramping up it's photo sharing. there is im that is very popular, getting more popular. all of these companies announced yesterday that suddenly their traffic had increased. a lot of people including celebrities are canceling these. my kids have instagram accounts. they say you have one month to delete all your photos. i'm cutting them off. bill: you're cutting them off? >> i said forget it i don't want their picture sold to anybody. bill: that is your choice. you can choose another company where you make sure you charlotte ownership of it. martha: that would cause a mall newt knee i mutiny in my house. this is a big story we've been following the past few days, an american marine held captive in mexico. marine veteran john hammer

chained to a bed in a mexican prison. his family says he did not commit any crime, and they want help on this from the white house. they want to get him home by christmas. oureoured henry asked about it yesterday >> we don't know all the facts of the case, what he did or didn't do, but his family is asking the white house to look into it. is there anything going on on to ascertain the facts to see if he's really innocent or not, because again we don't know the question. >> i'll have to take the question. i don't know the tphablgt facts on that so i'll have to take the question. martha: that surprised a lot of people. there is a picture of him chained to the bed, his parents john and olivia hammer join us live next. bill: how this want to be beauty queen just made billionaire donald trump a whole lot more money. martha: merry christmas. [ whistle blows ]

hi victor! mom? i know you got to go in a minute but this is a real quick me, that's perfect for two! campbell's chunky beef with country vegetables, poured over rice! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right.

martha: growing concerns about the skyrocketing national debt, you've watched that number to the right of me just ticking away over the last several years. right now every household in america owes a hundred and $40,000 if you break it down that way of our $16 trillion national debt. with trillion dollar budget deficits it's only going to grow. doug mcelway is live if washington with a look at this frightening situation. >> reporter: we blew right on past that $16 trillion debt number that we focused so much attention on earlier this year. we are well on our way to $17 trillion in debt. here is a live look at the clock that stands at 16 thril 16,000,000,000,389-plus. this dwarfs everything in history even though older generations were alarmed by reckless spending. the debt was a mere $34,000.

in 1965 it had risen to $3 billion. in 1929 at the time of the stock market crash it had risen to 17 billion. towards the end of world war ii it was 259 billion. all those numbers pale in comparison to president obama, more than all the president's combined. >> a pretty picture, not so much. bill: some of these warnings now the national debt is nearing dangerous levels. steven moore is here with the "wall street journal." what does it mean that the warnings are there, steve. >> the amazing thing about this debt. i was thinking when i first came to washington which was in the early 1980s, the debt level was about $2.5 trillion. now we are at 16.2 trillion. by the way every president goods back to dwight eisenhower has promised that they will balance the budget and the debt keeps getting bigger and bigger.

the real tragedy is that over the last five years the debt has increased by almost $6 trillion. that is more money than was borrowed from 1776 through the year 1976. bill: that's ridiculous. >> it is a tragic situation. bill: what is the danger in this economically speaking for us. >> the danger is two fold. one is if you look at the budget right now and we continue on this pace of borrowing we are expected to do, trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see we are looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars each year bill in only servicing the debt, the interest payments on the debt, which means the current taxpayers won't get anything in return, any government services, they'll be paying taxes just to pay for our past fiscal sins, i think that is the big problem. the other related problem bill is think about what happens if interest rates start to rise. as you know interest rates are as low since the great depression. no economist i know thinks rates will stay that low.

as interest rates rise over the next two, three, five years guess who will pay the highest tab for that, the u.s. government. i think those are the dangers. bill: every household in the u.s. owes $140,000 of this debt. the country borrows 6 billion every day. by the time this hour ends we'll barrow $239 million, and the crime here is that for every dollar in revenue the government government brings in it spends $2.06. have you heard any discussion about reversing this trend? because it seems most folks are waiting. >> that's what we've been talking about for the last month and a half is the clif fiscal cliff negotiations. let's say that president obama and john boehner and the republicans reach a deal and they are able to cut 1 or 2 billion fro2 bill 2 trillion

over ten years. bill: think about what you just said. 1 or 2 trillion over ten years. >> that is nothing. we'll borrow another 8 or 10 trillion in ten years, we'll have done nothing to reduce the national debt. we are not even treading water, we are losing ground year after year. it's going to require fairly steep reductions in spending. the other thing we have to do is accelerate the economic growth of this country. let me just make one other point. we saw last week that the federal reserve is pumping record amounts of money into the economy. one of the things that we are doing now for the first time in our nation's history is that the treasury is borrowing all this money and bill, guess who is buying all the debt? it's actually the federal reserve bank and where do they get the money to buy the debt, bill? they print it. we are printing money to pay a debt for the first time in our nation's history. bill: you know the problem is here, you can't agree to cut spending you know the government is broken.

steven moore, thank you very much. we'll see what comes of this. plan a, b, c and m. >> have a merry christmas. bill: and you. martha: it was a daring prison escape like something you'd see in a movie. inmates used bed sheets. the old bed sheet trick? it actually worked. bill: sometimes it does. the parents of marine veteran john hammer optimistic that he might be released but they did not get any help from the government. john and olivia hammer are with us live in a moment. we'll ask them what they told bill o'reilly last night. >> certainly they have not come out and asked for his release and secretary of state hillary clinton hasn't said anything. >> no, they told us they can't do anything. >> is that right the state department said they can't do anything? >> over and over, yeah. >> oh, that is a bunch of bull.

bill: bill: to the break break on the benghazi fallout now. this report is out and the first reaction we are getting, you're going to hear from senator bob

corker, republican from tennessee, his big point is insisting that hillary clinton still testify about what happened there. and then senator john kerry, who believes based on the report that you read, that the department of state has already taken a number of steps forward in a positive way. first corker, then kerry, reaction now. >> there is no question that there were people within the state department that were remiss and did not execute in an appropriate way. there are also some cultural issues, and, i mean, there were no doubt numbers of problems. and i would just say to that end, i know that secretary clinton was unable to be able to testify tomorrow in an open setting. i do think it's imperative for all concerned that she testify in an open session prior to any changing of the regime.

>> i think the department has taken a huge step forward to address the lessons learned from benghazi, which are important to everybody. you know, there are 70,000 employees over there. there are 275 different posts. people are at risk, it's a dangerous world we are in, and i think that this report is going to significantly advance the security interests of those personnel and of our country. bill: just two more notes on this. there are hearings that will take place on the hill this week. secretary clinton will not be a part of those hearings, but we do anticipate her to testify possibly in january, but more to come on that as we move forward. martha: more to come on this now. a story we have been following here in "america's newsroom," the parents of a u.s. marine veteran who is jailed in mexico are fighting to get their son back home they hope in time for christmas. here is the first photo that we've seen of john hammer since the mexican authorities detained him back in august.

he is seen shirtless and chained, you can see on his ankle there is a chain that leads to the end of that bed. he is facing charges for carrying an antique shotgun, according to his family, across the border. that former marine's parents, olivia and john hammer join me now. good morning to you both. it's good to have you with us this morning. >> thank you for having us. >> good morning. martha: i'm curious, when you look at that photo, obviously, you know, as a mother of two boys i can only imagine what it is like for you to see him in that condition, olivia. >> it was just stunning. i just can't totally wrap my head around it. martha: mr. hammer, take us back in terms of what your understanding is of what happened, how he tried to get that gun, he was on his way to costa rica with a buddy. they were going to take a brick and go hunting in costa rica. what did he do to make sure he would get the gun there legally? >> he didn't cross the border. he went to the border and he

filed paperwork on the u.s. side, and then he -- they told him to proceed and he went to the mexican check-point and asked them what he needed to do. here is my paperwork. so for asking what you need to do he's in prison. and we need our state department to be as aggressive as theirs has been for his safety, as theirs thr-s been defending their judicial system which has just been a sh-pl at this point. martha: the u.s. consulate general in mexico says that they have been in touch with your son, that they have visited him in prison four times, that they have made phone conversations, phone calls to him in between to check on his well-being, that they are very concerned about his safety. that when they heard that he was restrained they made sure that he was not restrained. is that your understanding, that they've taken the chain off and are looking after him? >> as of last wednesday. but they've been telling us for

months that they've done that and they've gone back and forth. at this point, you know, there are multiple legal-based reasons for him to be released, and he needs to be out now. martha: what is your understanding, olivia of what the timing is on this. yesterday, earlier in the day you said you didn't think anything would happen before january when he goes before this judge on this federal crime this he's accused of, that you believe he's not guilty of. now is there any reason to believe that that timeframe is being moved up? >> it's definitely not definitive at this point. we were told that we are going to have a ruling on his case by friday. so we don't know definitively what is going to happen, but our lawyers are optimistic. martha: yeah, according to some of what i've seen on this. john, the fear is that the president of mexico, you know, wants to -- wants everyone to believe that their system is,

you know, not corrupt, that no one gets special treatment, and that that may be a hinderance in terms of him just saying, okay, we have this marine, the united states government wants us to let him go, so we are going to let him go. >> we've got to help them figure out their judicial district before we give them any more money. he's been brought into the court and harassed to plead guilty to, you know, a 12-year sentence, by their court system. how is that a legitimate court system? martha: what kind of help are you getting from our state department? i know i read what the consulate says they are doing down there, but what is the state department telling you, and any word in the white house? i'm sure you must have been distressed to see that the press secretary wasn't even aware of this case whenned henry asked about him yesterday. >> absolutely nothing from our state department above the levels on the ground there in mexico. absolutely nothing. and the petition at white house

house.gov has almost hit the threshold that the white house should make a statement and its unbelievable that they don't have any idea what is going on. martha: i know oe determined, olivia that you want to make this as public as you possibly can. you've spoken to us several times over the past couple of days at fox. do you feel like it's getting you anywhere? >> you know, we haven't seen any -- i mean the results of that will be when he is released, obviously, but i -- you know, i just can't help but think that -- you know, just from the feedback that we've got even from people all over the country, all over the world, actually, this is getting coverage in the uk. i have a friend in peru who had seen it on tv in peru, it's all over the world. mexico is on a global stage right now, and they need to do the right thing. martha: this is an ally and a huge trading partner of the united states, and it's apparent to me that all you're asking for

is fair treatment for your son, and that he be returned on what you see as a baseless charge. >> precisely. martha: john and olivia we hope your son gets home in time for christmas and he can share that special time with you and your family and get out of there. and we are going to stay on top of this story. we thank you so much for being with us today. thanks to you both. >> thank you. bill: it's a tough, tough time. jon scott is coming up a couple minutes away, hospitals what is going on. jon: a new report from an independent group. it has a lot to say about what went wrong in benghazi. the tere owe attack back on september 11th left four americans dead, and it says the state department messed up big time. we'll go in depth on that. plus the president just about to announce the steps he'll take to crackdown on violence in the wake of the connecticut massacre, chris wallace weighs in. and new details in a sold case from 1959 that we've been following, the bodies of the two killers profiled in the "in cold blood" book are being exhumed.

what might the dna tell us? coming up on "happening now." bill: we'll see you then. a beauty queen accused the miss u.s.a. pageant of being rigged. donald trump sued the former beauty queen and the judge weighs n. and why this woman is being called a grinch. >> she will have one heck after christmas set up if she's been taking from everybody. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it mahelp lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just he to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy

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martha: a daring and brazen prison escape in downtown chicago. these two inmates are on the run. they escaped a hirise prison by creating the old rope made of bed sheets and blankets tied together. i guess they figured they would

give it a tie and it worked. they climbed down some 20 stories and nobody saw them on the side of the building apparently. it was in the middle of the night. both men were convicted of armed robbery. they believe the inmates are traveling together and they should be considered armed, question mark and dangerous. bill: with a bed sheet. gun control advocates pointing to d u.n. blane scotland as to what more can be done here. a similar shooting, a teacher and 16 children shot to death. greg pal clot palkot is live in london. >> reporter: the parallels are striking. the gunman with four registered weapons walked into that school in scotland on march 13th 1996 and shot dead 16, five and six years old, their teacher and then he turned the gun on himself. one of those children killed was five-year-old victoria clydesdale.

fox news sat down with her father charles. although his scottish accent is very heavy, it is clear what he thought the day of the loss. >> it was total devastation. i don't know what to say, it was screaming. >> reporter: the residents, just like the residents of newtown were besieged with media. to this day we found reserved scottish reticent to speak. the one public way the parents are working through the grief to push now what is a major topic in the united states, gun control. petitions and grassroots advocacy leading to laws banning almost all handgun use in the u.k., once again the father. >> they asked me my views on anything like that. the boys were six or seven, he

had a gun. >> reporter: other things we heard, recommit yourself to family, to religion and get back into a routine as soon as possible. their advocacy led to changes in school safety as well and child supervision. we also heard from the father, bill you never, never forget the tragedy and in the words of that father, she never leaves my head. back to you. bill: thank you, greg. greg palkot looking back as we look forward. martha: on that note we are waiting to hear now from president obama on a new effort to come up with legislation in the wake of the newtown massacre. so what is on the table, in terms of any possible solution for the future? a live report just ahead. (announcer) when subaru owners look in the mirror,

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jenna: she claims the miss usa contest was fixed. had to pay donald trump 5 dal million. former miss pennsylvania claimed the contest was